In a true story that's "bloody good entertainment" (NYTimes), the author of the Samuel Johnson Prize finalist The Verneys: A True Story of Love, War, and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England paints a vivid picture of the Barbary pirates of the Mediterranean, an altogether different breed from their storied Caribbean cousins.

"These pirates ... operated with the full support of the so-called Barbary States of North Africa—Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers. Those states owed nominal allegiance to the Sultan in Istanbul, and the government there saw piracy as a useful tool against the Christian West. Surprisingly, some of the most prominent pirates were English-born sailors who 'turned Turk' and converted to Islam. [Adrian] Tinniswood shows a certain admiration for the dash and raw courage of these men, but he doesn't minimize their ruthlessness or the suffering of their victims."—Booklist